The freelance journalist Martin Schibbye, who was previously imprisoned in Ethiopia, has covered Eritrea for a long time. He sees that there are strong feelings involved from both sides.
– Eritrea is a young country born out of a three-decade-long liberation war. The country was forced to become part of Ethiopia when the other countries were decolonized. All Eritrean families have paid an incredibly high price for the country to exist. And that also makes the conflict so charged on both sides, he says in SVT’s Aktuellt.
Has been called the world’s bloodiest conflict
Eritrea’s position in the conflict over Tigray means that there is an increasingly charged atmosphere between pro-regime Eritreans and its critics.
The conflict in Tigray has been called the world’s bloodiest conflict with hundreds of thousands dead, widespread famine and millions displaced. The UN has repeatedly sounded the alarm about possible war crimes and human rights violations. A truce was agreed upon in the fall of 2022.
That the Eritrean regime supported the Ethiopian government in the war against the rebels in Tigray has been criticized by regime critics.
– This means that the conflict has become even more regional. There have been protests before, but that’s why there are 1,000 storming this festival now and not 30, says Martin Schibbye.
See Martin Shibbye’s analysis in Aktuell in the clip above